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Monday, May 27, 2013

13 reasons why it was a distressing stay at Great Eastern Hotel, QC

The first time that I stayed at Great Eastern Hotel, QC (also known as Aberdeen) was in 2007. My Kuya wanted my 2 sisters and I to have a relaxing weekend, so he booked us a room at Great Eastern's new wing. I wasn't particular with hotels at the time, so I was pretty much satisfied with how our staycation went.

So when Rubel and I wanted to relax, we opted to stay somewhere nearby (since I couldn't walk long distances yet). Thus choosing Great Eastern. Then again, we didn't expect to get disappointed later on. Anyway, here's our review below.

CONS1) The Receiving Area/Lobby had a very funky, old smell. It gave me a slight headache. I mean, they could actually use some air fresheners in that area.

2) Room Service was pretty slow, to the point that follow-up calls had to be done twice or thrice (with intervals of course) --- given that we only ordered some bottled water and hot cappuccino drinks.3) No towels or bathroom mats were provided upon checking in at our room. We still had to request for those, which also took time for them to hand to us.4) Both 2 rolls of toilet paper in the bathroom were already half-way empty. Well, I'm all up for paper conservation. But the rolls weren't even replenished with a new set. And again, we had to request for fresh ones since we easily consumed the old rolls.

5) The airconditioning unit was old and noisy at the "new wing". It prevented me from having a good night's sleep. Also, it wasn't as cold as we wanted it during the day (already on full blast). I don't know why I didn't think about requesting for a room transfer.

6) I could live without a bathroom bidet. But they could've at least provided a water dipper (Tabo in Tagalog). Sadly, we had to make do with the glasses that were provided to us.

7) One of the curtains fell off from its pole when Rubel pulled it to see our view from the window. We were later on informed by the room attendant that the curtain wasn't really set to be pulled or opened (WHAT?!) since there were no stoppers provided. Well, so much for opening the windows then.

8) Our glass windows were also very dirty. It looked as if it hasn't been washed for a long time.

9) We wanted to try the swimming pool then but the door to the outdoor pool was locked. A signage by the door said that it was out of order. Then again, after seeing how shady the water was, I didn't think twice about diving in. The water looked as if it hasn't been replaced for weeks.

10) Our bed wasn't that comfy to sleep in nor was our pillows (we only had one each) --- the third pillow, I used for my foot. It felt so flat that it gave me a headache.

11) We had Cable TV but the signal wasn't all that clear. The remote was even busted. Rubel had to tap it every time he wanted to change the channel.

12) The carpet had stains. Even the bed sheet too.

13) Our room was situated by Quezon Avenue. But despite being on the 11th floor, I could still hear the vehicles driving and honking from the roads. It was pretty noisy, so I didn't get enough sleep too.

THERE ARE A FEW PRO'S TOO...

1) The room attendants and receptionists were courteous, so that set off a nice tone to our stay in Great Eastern.

2) Since food at GEH was expensive we opted to get some take-out instead. Thankfully, the hotel was near several food establishments like McDonald's, Max Restaurant, and National Bookstore Quezon Avenue (it has Subway, Tapa King, Goldilock's). There were convenience stores too like Crossing's and Mercury Drug store where we got our soda's and bottled water.

3) They provide a hassle-free booking online, check-in and check-out.

4) The bathroom was clean, even the bathtub. Good thing they also provided us some complimentary toothbrush, toothpaste, soap and shampoo, which we never got to use since we brought our own stuff.

5) There was also a small refrigerator that only contained two small bottled water, 2 Pepsi in can, and some Red Bull energy drinks. We drank and paid for everything except for the Red Bull.

6) Our room smelled okay, so that was a plus after enduring the stench from the hotel lobby.

Souvenir Shop

Anyhow, we paid for P2,000 on one night's stay at Great Eastern Hotel. Yet I've experienced far more hotels that have provided better amenities and are more cheaper than GEH. We just felt like we didn't get our money's worth staying here.

20 comments:

Seems like a decent hotel but too bad it doesn't smells good. This reminded me of my experience in one of the hotels I stayed at in Baguio (not worth mentioning); rusty smell but the good thing is, they served delicious breakfast :-)

that kind of hotel accommodation costs around 500-1000 here in Davao. Yep, airconditioned with cable TV. Yep, you could definitely get more for your 2000, there are better hotels there for sure. Well, at least, we now know about this hotel.

as a budget biyahera, i should say based on your detailed review that 2000 pesos is unreasonable and overpriced at that. your review is a good venue for guests who wants an honest review and for the hotel as well to find ways on how to improve.

so far haven't experience pa nmn bad hotels and I dont want if ever haha. well as long as they have A/c and hot water and plenty of them in the bathroom that would be fine for me haha it is so bad reading this. Great personal review though.

Oh if the receiving area was that bad, I don't think I would want to proceed to the room areas. But on picture, the lobby looked great naman. For the room service, I would not be also satisfied with staff who moves slow.

When we stayed at this hotel, it was just for one night. We booked two rooms, one for each of us, but ended up using just one so we just chose the bigger of the two, plus we got the pillows from the other room since I can't sleep with just one pillow (pillows were returned the following morning hehe). The ref on your room might not have been re-stacked since there were more than a few drinks but we didn't touch any of them since I'm too OC when it comes to food and drinks (we bought our stuff outside). I agree with the windows, the dirt was too thick that I could hardly see the view outside with all the accumulated dust and dirt. I assume it may have been months or even years since they last cleaned it and possibly relied on rain water. I wasn't blogging that time and I was conserving camera batteries and memory so I didn't take pictures. As for the smell, there were some construction going on at that time and the smell was a bit sour...when they told me they were doing some "renovation works", I ignored the smell at the lobby which actually looked nice except for a few chipping off of the sofa. It was a good thing we didn't try to go to the pool. It just makes me wonder why are they not taking care of their amenities? We used the toothbrush they gave us since I already packed everything in another luggage meant for our trip abroad. I think that's a positive point. We didn't get the soaps though since we bought some from outside along with shampoo and conditioner. Too bad we didn't know about Oplan Paligo then. Aircon was working fine, there must have been something wrong with the aircon in your room. We didn't notice the traffic noise since we love playing gaming consoles and listen to music when we go to sleep.lol All in all, our stay was acceptable but I wouldn't recommend this hotel either. Except for their great customer service & free bathroom kit, there isn't anything else nice I could think of. In fairness to them, there are a lot of hotels that are far worse. I wish there was a hotline where guests can call to complain about the quality and cleanliness of a hotel since we are after all, paying customers and I think they also have random inspections,etc. If there are hotlines for rude PUV drivers, there should be a hotline for cleanliness as well so places such as this are always on their toes and they are required to maintain a certain standard of cleanliness. ;-)